19820825 Reading from Teachings of Lord Caitanya Chapter 30 Sri Radhastami @ Chicago

GM : Om namo bhagavathe vaasudevaya.

Devotees : Om namo bhagavathe vasudevaya.

GM : Om namo bhagavathe vaasudevaya.

Devotees : Om namo bhagavathe vasudevaya.

GM : Om namo bhagavathe vaasudevaya.

Devotees : Om namo bhagavathe vasudevaya.

Mukham karoti vacalam pangurlanga yate girim yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam paramananda madhavam

In the Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, there's chapter 30,The Transcendental Pastimes of Radha and Krishna, which is a description of the conversation between Ramananda Raya and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So Prabhupada says on page 311, (GM Reads from TLC).

GM Elaborates: So here Srila Prabhupad, he’s taking us step by step, that first we should know, what is the difference between the material energy and the spiritual energy. And between the, the personified spiritual potency of the Lord and the material potency of the Lord. That this material energy is temporary, the blessings given by the material energy are temporary. But, Krishna, the Supreme Lord has His own spiritual energy who gives eternal blessings in the spiritual world and there is a difference between these two. So now here we are going into the spiritual platform. In the spiritual platform the Lord has various names and there is no difference between the name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. So therefore we chant these names for purification, this is the process given by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but different people have given different names, like God, Allah, which signifies God as the creator… God is the creator is only a materialistic aspect. Like this, the conception of God, or the Supreme Being may be, in different moods. So, depending how we address God, how we address the Supreme Being, He is going to reciprocate. If you address Him as the creator, that is an aspect which is simply a material aspect. He is not only the creator. But the materialistic people they don’t know anything about God, except what they see in this material world. So they think of Him, “Well, He’s the one that created everything.” So now Prabhupada is systematically showing us, how the concept of creator, the concept of the Supreme Brahman, the impersonal energy, the concept of the Paramatma, the localized all pervasive personality is in every atom in our heart accompanying us. All these conceptions are not full. They’re partial, that there’s more than that. So then Prabhupad is going on explaining about the Lord in Vaikuntha. He is saying… (GM continues reading from TLC)

GM elaborates: So, in this way, it is very clear that worshiping Krishna in any other form, whether as Rukmini-Krishna or as Narayana, is not on the same level as worshiping Radha-Krishna. In South India, many philosophers feel that Krishna is actually an expansion of Narayana; this is not at all accepted. Ultimately Krishna is the original form of God. God also has unlimited forms each of them are full, absolute, transcendental, having unlimited potencies. Yet, that’s in an ordinary sense. In a higher (repeated), evaluation of Their qualities, then Krishna’s qualities are special, and especially because Krishna is associated with Srimati Radharani.

(GM continues the reading from TLC)

GM elaborates : You’ve certainly heard of the English saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” So when we’re discussing the transcendental qualities of the Lord, then, ultimately the beholder becomes very important. That particular devotee has a certain limitation, how much he can actually appreciate the beauty of Krishna. Just like an ordinary person may not be able to appreciate, some works of art, as another person, who is very expert in art can appreciate. So a non-devotee is not able to appreciate the full beauty of Krishna. And then within devotees some devotees are able to appreciate Krishna's beauty, His qualities, His characteristics to such an extent that actually it draws out more of His transcendental characteristics. So this is the nature of the Gopis that they are actually able to appreciate Krishna’s transcendental qualities more than other devotees. More of the qualities of Krishna therefore are manifested in a company with devotees, especially rather the gopis. And now Lord Chaitanya is being asked, asking Ramananda Roy to go on further.

GM elaborates: Srila Prabhupada would not generally discuss, in public lectures, these details. The details of the pastimes of Srimati Radharani and Krishna, because, this was the principle of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He would only discuss these matters with his most intimate disciples. As a materialist may misconceive them and thus commit the error of thinking that Radha and Krishna is some material activity and commit some offense and thus fall down from the path of spiritual life. At the same time, especially these things are revealed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to attract the minds of the fallen souls in the age of Kali. The people in the age of Kali are very fallen, they have a serious disease. Therefore they need a very strong medicine. So chanting Harinam, the sankirtan or congregational chanting of the Lord’s names, revealing the Lord’s pastimes and His holy dhams, these strong medicines have been revealed to defeat the epidemic of sinful life which is going throughout the civilization in Kali yuga. I remember, one time Srila Prabhupada was lecturing that throughout the ages there are many great souls who have given up all material things, seeking spiritual happiness, spiritual bliss. He cited Maharaj Bharat, who was emperor of the world. It describes in the Bhagavatham, he gave up his kingdom, his riches, his opulence, his fame. He gave up his family, he gave everything up. Actually it describes just as a man leaves the bathroom, he just left without even looking back. All these opulences. Prabhupad said why? He was after that spiritual bliss. Buddha, Siddha… Siddhartha was a great prince, he had all the opulence given by his father, the King. Beautiful damsels, money, everything he wanted. But he left it all without a second thought. Why? He was searching after spiritual bliss. Like this, there are so many great souls. They have given up everything going after this spiritual happiness. So Prabhupad said, “What is that spiritual happiness?” That spiritual happiness, is Srimati Radharani. She is the pleasure potency of the Lord. Everyone is running after her. She’s not any ordinary person, when she’s able to give Krishna happiness. That means all the spiritual happiness is just a partial manifestation of Srimati Radharani. So, just as Srimati Radharani is most able to perceive all of the transcendental quailities of Krishna, similarily Krishna is only able to appreciate transcendental the pleasure of Srimati Radharani. Therefore, they are completely inseparable.

(GM continues reading from TLC)

GM: This is the thing to remember, that Srimati Radharani is special amongst all the devotees. Therefore Krishna gave her special attention. Therefore we worship the Lord, as Radha-Krishna. As the highest understanding of the Absolute Truth, as the highest form because only in the forms of Radha and Krishna, are all the qualities of Krishna present. Because only Srimati Radharani can appreciate all of the qualities of Krishna. A devotee will appreciate some of the transcendental bliss, some of the transcendental ecstasy, some of the transcendental qualities of Krishna. We cannot imitate Srimati Radharani, Krishna Himself wanted to understand how she was able to appreciate so many things. What was she appreciating? He took the mood of Radharani and became Lord Chaitanya. Therefore he took also her color and became golden color. Krishna’s the color of a rain cloud, dark bluish -black. Effulgent. And Radharani is golden color. So when Krishna came with the mood of Radharani, He came in golden color. So Lord Chaitanya, He exhibited the same appreciation of Krishna, as Radharani did. Therefore sometimes , He would become mad in ecstasy, He would jump in the Jamuna River, or rather into the sea, thinking it was the Jamuna River. Sometimes His body would become dislocated. He would stretch out to nine feet in length with simply the bones being held together by the skin. And He’d be crying out the names of Krishna and He would be completely… it would be fearful for the devotees. They would chant “Hare Krishna”, and again He would come back together when He heard “Hare Krishna” and then again He would start to dance. It was such manifestations that no one could even dream of, what to speak of imitate. We find that the intimate associates of Lord Chaitanya, only a few were the topics of Radha and Krishna intimately discussed. And generally it wasn’t that all of the devotees were always exhibiting such ecstasies, crying or quivering and all these other ecstasies. Occasionally, it was visible. Generally they would try to suppress it. Only in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, did it reach such heights that it was irrepressible or insuppressible. Therefore it was known as ‘mahabhav’ or the great ecstasies. In the Krishna conscious movement, we don’t show these things. And neither anyone can show to that extent, but rather, one internally appreciates and sometimes the devotee is feeling different symptoms. These are all just partial manifestations of Radharani’s happiness coming down. It was the greatest shock for the gopis, when Krishna left Vrndavana and went to Dwaraka and Mathura. They became practically mad with love for Krishna, showing that Krishna, either in their presence or in their absence, their ecstatic love was always at the highest level. [It] wasn’t limited by any material condition.

In material life one cannot experience love to that extent unless the person is there, physically there. He’s there, through various subtle bhavas. One can see that the gopis are completely absorbed, Radharani was completely absorbed in the thoughts of Krishna and Krishna was present. So Krishna, knowing the gopis were very upset, Krishna sent Uddhava; also to purify Uddhava by getting their association. He sent Uddhava to Vrndavana to deliver a message to the gopis, especially to Srimati Radharani. So in the Krishna book, page 64, of the second volume, we could read some parts of this discussion and understand a little more of transcendental pastimes.

GM now reads from Krishna Book:

GM Elaborates: So then, Uddhava seeing all these things, he became completely overwhelmed. You see Krishna, in the message, had glorified the qualities of the gopis but the gopis were not very interested in hearing.Uddhava realized their transcendental position (GM reads a portion in Krishna Book about Uddhava, which illustrates this point). So when the gopis heard that Uddhava had a message form Krishna, they were more interested in hearing the message than about their exalted position. They did not like, they did not like very much being praised for their high position. They showed anxiety to hear the message Uddhava had brought from Krishna. The gopis are… Prabhupada is describing that the gopis are in the perfectional stage of meditation. GM continues reading from Krishna book

JPS: In this way Srimati Radharani expands Herself into many gopis and into many Laxmis and arranges for the service of Krishna. The understanding of Krishna, is at its perfection when one understands Krishna with the gopis and finally with Srimati Radharani. This is further described by Ramananda Roy to Lord Chaitanya as follows, in describing the beauty of Krishna. In fact, even Krishna Himself is attracted by His own beauty, He is so beautiful.

(GM continues reading from TLC)

GM Elaborates : Today, in Gita-Nagari, they are establishing Lalita and Visakha deities for serving their Radha Damodar deities. You should be probably interested, all the past devotees of Radha Damodar.

GM reads on: Rupa Goswami explains the characteristics of Srimati Radharani…

GM asks devotees : How much further, we should go on? 52:44

GM continues reading from TLC

JPS: Today we are celebrating Radhastami fifteen days after Krishna’s appearance.

GM continues reading from TLC

GM's Elaboration: So here we understand how the Mayavadis, they can never understand Radha Krishna pastimes, because they don’t accept spiritual senses. Therefore, whenever they think of sense activities, they’ll only think of material sense activities. Therefore one should very carefully avoid this Mayavadi philosophy, because it will stop one from relishing actual, real transcendental happiness of the highest order.

GM continues reading from TLC.

GM Elaborates: So in this way on the appearance day of Srimati Radharani we pray for the ability to simply to serve the servant of the servant of the servant of Srimate Radharani to serve Srila Prabhupad and his dedicated devotees. And become free from all type material misconceptions of life and in the mood of the gopis, in the mood of separation serving; always anxious to please the Lord and His devotees one can very quickly achieve this highest destination. It's not possible by yoga, by jnana, by mystic practices or by mental speculation or by any type of material endeavor. But it's possible by this process of devotional service. So, we need especially the mercy of Srimati Radharani. We pray to Srimati Radharani for blessings that we can serve Krishna and spiritual master, because she is very compassionate and soft. Actually, when we serve the deity of Radha and Krishna in the temple, that service is supposed to be on the platform of pure loving devotional service. But, as we are not able to artificially imitate that standard, that is something which can only happen, so that is why we worship according to rules and regulations and thus it’s actually worshipping in the mood of Laxmi-Narayani, with awe and reverence. That is accepted by Radha- Krishna and in this way we become purified by worshiping their deities in the temple formally. And ultimately, as one advances, then spontaneous devotion for Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna, Kishor-Kishori, will develop. That simply is happening by sticking to this process of devotional service, always remaining engaged, never allowing any material diversion to distract it.

GM: Jai Srimati Radharani Ki!

Devotees: Jai!

GM: Srila Prabhupad Ki!

Devotees: Jai!

GM: Radhastami maha mahotsava Ki!

Devotees: Jai

GM: Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta ki!

Devotees: Jai

GM: Srimad Bhagavatham Maha puranam ki!

Devotees: JAI

GM: Srila Prabhupad Teaching of Lord Chaitanya, Krishna book ki!

Devotees: JAI!

GM: Srila Prabhupad books ki!

Devotees: JAI!!

GM: Hare Krishna

GM: Any questions?

GM: Yes, it is described . She is of course referred to, indirectly. It mentions that one devotee especially is able to worship Krishna, “a radhitau.” Able to worship Krishna better. And within that word, “aradha , aradhana,” Radha is there, but that is a little incognito. This is described by the previous acharyas, that, as her name was so confidential and esoteric, that Sukadev Goswami, out of being over- whelmed and some humility, felt bashful to even mention directly Her name, feeling unqualified to do so. Out of humility. But it’s mentioned in the Padma Purana and other Puranas, Her name is mentioned. I was suggesting to Srila Acharyadeva that, it would be more..Prabhupada had said that he wanted to have the Padma Purana also translated which also glorifies Srimati Radharani specifically. It would be nice if he did that rather than The Mahabharat. I don’t know how much he will take my advice, but, I heard he is considering it seriously.

GM: Kapila? What’s his name?

Devotee: inaudible

GM: Vyasadev?

Devotee: inaudible

GM: Vyasadev or Vasudev?

Mataji: inaudible

GM: Vyasadev, do you have any question? How do you feel today on Radhastami? Yes? Question : (inaudible)

GM: Well, she ‘s known as the daughter of Vrishabhanu. The king of, the King Vrshabhanu. Don’t they say in Vrndavan , that she was plowed up in the field or something? Or was she actually born? How was it? It’s kind of a mystery how she appeared, but she is known as the daughter of Vrshabhanu. Exactly, the details, how She appeared is somewhat of a mystery. So Varshana, where she appeared, the home of Vrshabhanu. There he saw Lord Narayana, with Neela, Bhu and Sri, Bhudevi, Neela Sri. And immediately , he prostrated himself and there Lord Narayan became Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He took that form and He blessed Ramanujacharya and told him, that he should go all over and preach the dasya rasa. Ramanujacharya , wanted to stay in Navadvip. He said, “No, you have to go as Jagannath ordered to Kurmastan, later when I come, then you will join me.” Like that. So, then Ramanujacharya went to Kurmastan and continued his preaching. It ‘s in the story by Nityananda to Jiva Goswami on “ The Glories of Navadvip dham”

Cc Madhya 7.114-120 premāveśe hāsi’ kāndi’ nṛtya-gīta kaila dekhi’ sarva lokera citte camatkāra haila

While at this place, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was in His usual ecstasy of love of Godhead and was laughing, crying, dancing and chanting. Everyone who saw Him was astonished.

āścarya śuniyā loka āila dekhibāre prabhura rūpa-prema dekhi’ hailā camatkāre

After hearing of these wonderful occurrences, everyone came to see Him there. When they saw the beauty of the Lord and His ecstatic condition, they were all struck with wonder.

darshane ‘vaiṣṇava’ haila, bale ‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘hari’ premāveśe nāce loka ūrdhva bāhu kari’

Just by seeing Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, everyone became a devotee. They began to chant “Kṛṣṇa” and “Hari” and all the holy names. They all were merged in a great ecstasy of love, and they began to dance, raising their arms.

kṛṣṇa-nāma loka-mukhe śuni’ avirāma sei loka ‘vaiṣṇava’ kaila anya saba grāma

Always hearing them chant the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa, others also became Vaiṣṇavas in those villages.

ei-mata parasarāya deśa ‘vaiṣṇava’ haila kṛṣṇa-nāmāmṛta-vanyāya deśa bhāsāila

By hearing the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, the entire country became Vaiṣṇavas. It was as if the nectar of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa over-flooded the entire country.

kota-kṣaṇe prabhu yadi bāhya prakāśilā kūrmera sevaka bahu sammāna karilā

After some time, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu manifested His external consciousness, a priest of the Lord Kūrma Deity gave Him various offerings.

GM's elaborates : Here we see, how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, just by seeing his chanting and dancing in ecstasy, people were converted into pure devotees. And they began to also chant and dance. And other people, seeing them chant and dance, also became devotees. In this way, one after another, everyone became devotees of the Lord, Vaishnavas.

yei grāme yāya tāhāṅ ei vyavahāra eka ṭhāñi kahila, nā kahiba āra bāra Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mode of preaching has already been explained, and I shall not repeat the explanation. In whichever village the Lord entered, His behavior was the same.

7.121-7.124 ‘kūrma’-nāme sei grāme vaidika brāhmaṇa bahu śraddhā-bhaktye kaila prabhura nimantraṇa In one village there was a Vedic brāhmaṇa called Kūrma. He invited Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to his home with great respect and devotion.

ghare āni’ prabhura kaila pāda prakṣālana sei jala vaṁśa-sahita karila bhakṣaṇa

This brāhmaṇa brought Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu to his home, washed His lotus feet and, with his family members, drank that water.

aneka-prakāra snehe bhikṣā karāila gosāñira śeṣānna sa-vaṁśe khāila

That Kurma brahmana with great affection and respect, made Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu eat all kinds of food. After that, the remnants were shared by all the members of the family.

‘yei pāda-padma tomāra brahmā dhyāna kare sei pāda-padma sākṣāt āila mora ghare The brāhmaṇa then began to pray, “O my Lord, Your lotus feet are meditated upon by Lord Brahmā, and these very lotus feet have come into my home.

GM: This is a fact that… Remember how Lord Brahma becoming a little bit proud, had stolen calves, cows; baby calves and cowherders, cowherd boys, from Krishna and put them in a cave and went away. Of course when he returned, then Krishna showed His transcendental power. Because He had already re-manifested all those stolen calves and cowherd boys. And Brahma, seeing that, and Krishna… (is there a thing?). Krishna out of each of those cowherd boys and calves, manifested unlimited Narayanas; each Narayana more brilliant than millions of suns. And out of those cowherd boys and Narayanas, are coming out with Their four hands sankha, padma, gadha and chakra. And They’re coming out, going in and all the material elements are going on all sides offering their respects to these forms of Narayana. Seeing these millions of Naryanas coming out from the hundreds of cowherd boys he thought that he had stolen, Brahma became so bewildered he fell down and begged Krishna , “please forgive me. Please forgive me for my offense, do not forget that I am your eternal devotee.”

And of course Krishna forgave him. Brahma returned the stolen cowherd boys and calves. Brahma was thinking, “How fortunate are these cowherd calves, these cowherd boys. These cowherd boys, are playing with Krishna, just like His friend. How fortunate, if only I could be so fortunate! Instead, as a Brahma I become so puffed up with my false position that I commit offense to the Lotus feet of my master, Sri Krishna. Thinking this way he left and he decided to perform tapasya for purification and meditate on the lotus feet of Chaitany Mahprabhu in Navadvip dham at the Yogapeeth, the very place where Lord Chaitanya comes : Antardvipa. There Lord Brahma , he meditated on Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, knowing that he was the ocean of mercy. Meditating on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the all merciful golden avatar appeared to him. Lord Brahma bowed down with his four heads to the Lord. Seeing His beautiful form, with His lotus eyes going back to His ears, His hair tied up in a kacha, in the brahminical style. With His flowing robes and flower garland with bumblebees flying all around the garland trying to get the nectar and the nectar form His lotus feet and accompanied by his associates.

Lord Brahma said,”My dear Lord Gauranga, you are the most merciful avatar, I am so fallen, kindly have your mercy upon me. Because I am a Brahma, therefore I always forget my position as your eternal servant, and I offend Krishna. Since you are the ocean of mercy, please have your mercy upon me, that I may take birth in Your upcoming incarnation, as your assistant and associate. And that I may be purified from my false ego as a Brahma and learn humility, so that I may never forget for the rest of my life the lotus feet of Sri Krishna.” So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he accepted, with the words “tatastah" or "So be it." Lord Brahma whatever you have wanted you shall have. You will appear as my associate and when you leave your body I will be personally present at that time. So your soul will be purified. But to purify you from the false ego of being a Brahma, you have to take birth in a Mohammedan family. But you will be my dear devotee and your name will be Haridas. And you will chant every day 300,000 names of Krishna. And by chanting these 300,000 names your whole life, that will give you enough sukriti to last you the rest of your life of Brahma, that you will never forget. Saying that, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared. Lord Brahma again fell down, jumped up in joy.

GM sings:

Chatur Mukhi Brahma Bole Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Pancha Mukhi Mahadeva Rama Rama Hare Hare

So Lord Brahma went back to Brahmaloka to tidy up all the pending business and prepare for coming down, in a few minutes of his time, 5000 moments, to join Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So actually, Lord Brahma did worship Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And everything, he desired, was given to him, by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. To be born in a Muslim family meant that he had to be humble, because he wouldn’t be accepted by the strict Hindus. But Lord Chaitanya, He accepted him as His associate and devotee. So everything that he wanted was given. Actually we can see from this that Lord Brahma’s desire, to be an associate of Krishna, friend of Krishna, that was being fulfilled by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So what else did the brahmana say here?

Text 125-128 mora bhāgyera sīmā nā yāya kahana āji mora ślāghya haila janma-kula-dhana “My dear Lord, there is no limit to my great fortune. It cannot be described. Today, my family, birth and riches have all been glorified.”

kṛpā kara, prabhu, more, yāṅ tomā-saṅge sahite nā pāri duḥkha viṣaya-taraṅge’

The brāhmaṇa begged Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “My dear Lord, kindly show me favor and let me go with You. I can no longer tolerate the waves of misery caused by materialistic life.” GM reads the purport to the above verse.

GM's Elaboration :“Janma”: means aristocratic birth,” janma kula “ means aristocratic heritage and “dhana” means Lakshmi, money.

GM : (continues reading the purport)

GM's Elaboaration :In other words whether one is very rich or whether one is very poor, this material world is designed just to create a burning in the heart; to create troublesome situations. Therefore, one should always be eager to take shelter of the Lord: bisoya chadiya kobe, suddho hobe mon? When will we stop to see this material world as object of sense enjoyment? When will our mind become pure? What is that pure mind? That pure mind is the pure mind of Krishna consciousness; of wanting to see everything engaged in Krishna’s service. Whatever we see we want to engage that in Krishna’s service. This is the pure mind. But let’s see how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied.

prabhu kahe, — “aiche bāt kabhu nā kahibā gṛhe rahi’ kṛṣṇa-nāma nirantara laibā

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu replied, “Don’t speak like that again. Better to remain at home and chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa always.”

GM : (reads the purport to the above verse)


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